What I Watched -- The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

It's Hunger Games time again!  T and I spent an evening this week catching up with Katniss, Peeta, Gale, and the gang in Catching Fire (trailers), the second of what will be four Hunger Games movies.  The third book, as appears to be a matter of course these days, is going to be split into two movies.

Catching Fire finds the victors from the first movie headed back to the arena for more fun and games, in another survivor-takes-all battle even more twisted than the last one, with the added bonus of rebellion brewing in the Districts.  Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence), the Mockingjay, is their symbol of hope.

I thought this film was better made than the first one, and did a good job of focusing on the plot-based portion of the story, rather than getting lost in the thoughts of the characters.  But because you don't have Katniss's narration spelling things out for you, some of the details get lost in the shuffle.  The fight scenes were still a bit difficult to follow, but overall the camera work was better than the first.

I'm going to need more of Gale (Liam Hemsworth) in the third movie, because the Katniss-Gale story needs a little work.  Katniss and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) won this one, but being in life-and-death situations will do that to a couple. Elizabeth Banks (still gorgeous) as Effie Trinket was a little less grating and a little more nuanced and, while I like Philip Seymour Hoffman, his casual demeanor doesn't seem quite right for a head gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee.  And of course I still love Lenny Kravitz as Cinna and Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy.

Bottom line: I had heard mixed reviews about this one, but on the whole I have to say they did a decent job with my least favorite of the three books.